Come on Bobby, Where’s the Class?…

Only a few days after the tragic passing of Nick Adenhart, a young phenom hurler for the Anaheim Angles, what does Adenhart’s teammate Bobby Abreu do? He attacks Josh Beckett, a flamethrower for the Boston Red Sox, for no reason. Why? Well, he thought for some reason that Beckett was throwing at him after the umpire called “time” during one of Abreu’s at-bats when Beckett couldn’t stop his pitching motion.

Courtesy of photos.upi.com

Bobby, if you knew what snapping your elbow to stop a pitch mid-throw felt like or did to your throwing arm, you’d understand what Beckett did. Pitchers have caused major arm and/or elbow damage by jerking their arm to a stop in the middle of a pitch in order to accomodate the hitter and/or umpire. At a young age, as a pitcher, you’re taught to just continue your motion and throw the ball anyways in order to preserve the health of your arm. That’s all that happened here. Beckett simply held the ball a little long. To me, Abreu got way too bent out of shape for no reason at all. And yes, if Beckett wanted to hit him, he would have. He only throws like a 150 MPH fastball…

I know that the ball wizzed over Abreu’s head, but let’s be real here. It didn’t hit him, it didn’t even graze his jersey. Is a fight and verbal altercation really necessary? Beat him at the plate instead Bobby! Better yet, Tori Hunter hopped on the raged bandwagon, ran out to the pitcher’s mound, and threatened to pound on Beckett. Consequently, he was ejected from the ballgame. Get real Tori, nobody cares about what you do anymore. At this point, you and Bobby Abreu, for that matter, have fallen off the baseball map as prestine outfielders in the Major Leagues. If I had to guess, Beckett would’ve probably put up a good fight anyways (especially with Yuke and Big Papi having his back). He looks scrappy, right folks?!?

Worst of all, the timing of this ridiculous, babyish confrontation couldn’t have been worse. Shouldn’t we be paying respects and mourning the death of Nick Adenhart, a teammate, and realize that there’s more to life than inexplicably feeling threatened by an opposing player? Grow up fellas (Tori and Bobby). Do the right thing…be respectful, shut up, and please, just play ball…